Heart Box

 There are places - and people - that have been on the Safari radar forever, as examples of enormous talent combined with wicked humor, and endless heart - Frankie Rockett is a case in point. After many years, the Safari finally got a chance to meet up with him and experience the iconic build Art Box, now transferred to LFGrid, where it has found a stable and permanently open venue. Full address as always at the end of the post.

Armed and dangerously talented 
Frankie Rockett

 There is something of the Willy Wonka about Frankie - with one caveat, none of the annoying 'follow the rules or else' in Frankie's ethos. 

A charming, brilliant, yet somehow elusive figure, Frankie's build Art Box - the fruit of well over a decade of creativity - speaks for itself, it is a chocolate box full of sweet treats. 

The premise of the build for those few people who haven't experienced it over the past decade or so, is that you can be 'part of the picture' - be it a well known poster, photo, album cover, oil painting, watercolor - in short, famous artwork from all genres and time periods. 

It's both fun and philosophical as you put yourself quite literally in the picture, thus inviting thoughts of 'what is going on here.... or just a lot of giggles, depending on your mood of the moment. It's flexible.

Art Box panorama. 

There are tens of 'tableaux' or 'sets' - the entire collection that was originally laid out over two sims in OSGrid has been condensed into one region here on Littlefield, but there is no sense of crush, just a magical mixing of styles and moods.

Frankie met us at the door to his Pyramide-style welcome area - that black walkway changes color as you cross it, neat trick! The whole sim is a symphony of scripting.

Frankie Rockett: Hello Everyone - and welcome - to Art Box!  Art Box is an interactive art gallery. What do I mean by that?  I mean that at Art Box you (your avatar) becomes the central part of the art   You can use him or her to recreate famous paintings & photographs. Or rather than recreate, you may want to re-imagine, to re-invent... You might change the central figure to... a fox! Or a robot! Or anything you wish. You might want to change the tone, make it funny or intense or create a political commentary or ..? Really anything is possible. And if you like what you make and want to share it please do consider adding it to our Flickr Group!!!

Tosha Tyran: that sounds interesting

Frankie Rockett: I hope you have had an opportunity to view the "Nighthawks" video.   I sent you all that link to explain how Art Box started. I'd been making lots of machinima   If that term is new to you that's a portmanteau of 'machine' and 'cinema'. I'd been making corporate machinima in Second Life for the likes of Reebok, IBM, Microsoft, and many others. After they found out how unhelpful Linden Lab can be, all of them left and my work vanished with them - - - > sad face!

Frankie Rockett: Ha! But there was an upside, I realised. Now I could make machinima to please myself! No corporate goals involved.   I was free to explore the artistry of the medium.  So the very first one I made was Nighthawks.  I simply wanted to explore what it might be like 'inside the canvas'.  To imagine the mood in that neon-lit diner as America was on the eve of war. After finishing the film I wondered what to do with the set I'd built.  I had a lot of land in SL so I left it rezd and noticed people coming to play and pose in it. The idea was born! My former partner and I set about recreating various paintings we loved and soon  just images we felt would work well to pose in   In all we created around 90 'sets' as we call them.  

James  Atlloud : oh!

Xi Shi: great painting too

Frankie Rockett: So let's start the tour! I've picked out 5 or so to draw your attention to   I've tried to pick sets that are special in various ways. One or two designed for small groups (obviously!) and even one that has added sound (for those with audio - and no matter if you do not).  But I thought we'd start with the most unusual exhibit here that I call "The Pollockizer"!  Rather than see yourself in a painting that set allows you to create a painting - in the style of Jackson Pollock.

Xi Shi: time to chuck some paint!

This feature of Art Box sums up the charming interactivity of Art Box. It puts the audience in the foreground, allowing you the visitor to have fun, but at the same time walk a mile (or chuck a can) in the footsteps of one of the 20th century's most influential artists. Clever stuff. 

Frankie Rockett: So...  I am selecting the paint Pots to create a random splash in the chosen colour   I can also choose one of the Brushes to create more of a 'slash' of paint in that colour   Then I repeat the process building up layers as you will see. When I programmed The Pollockizer for various technical reasons beyond the scope of this intro the quickest way to erase the canvas for the next user is to set all the paint splash objects to 'Temporary' - therefore it takes 60 seconds to clear the canvas   Still; quicker than painting gesso over a real canvas!

Roffellos Kisses: love that! can you splatter someone with it?

Xi Shi: my mum would have killed me

Frankie Rockett: As you can see - onlookers can mess into it too!

Angelic  Kisses: what? splatter someone???

Frankie Rockett: You can try!

Forest Azure: splash me!

Angelic Kisses: Oh wow!!   this is fun!! We're selling this for $50k!!

Tosha  Tyran: woot! That is cool. Bravo to opensim and bravo to Frankie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frankie Rockett: Thank you Tosha! You are of course all welcome to return and play as much as you wish at any point  For now this way please, all the way to next door. The instantly recognisable Abbey Road cover - I picked this as we're a group so more than 1 can play.

James  Atlloud: Now that's a tour guide marker!  I'll need that in Paris!

Angelic  Kisses: great walk!

Frankie Rockett: My pimp walk :)

Thirza Ember: the way the original Beatle cutout disappears when someone poses is pure magic

Luna Lunaria: great set

Frankie Rockett: This is a personal favourite   Attack of the 50Ft Woman   Would one of our ladies like to demonstrate? And please note these Props Crates (I'm standing on one)   They contain props that support the scene in some way   In this case it's the small car for the woman in the artwork to hold in her left hand...someone like to jump on the pose ball?

Luna Lunaria: rawr... I remember movies like this one :-)

Luna Lunaria poses

Thirza Ember: this is a great place to bring friends who think there's nothing fun to do in opensim. educational too.

Frankie Rockett: And for virtual photographers, and anyone who just wants to play!

James posing for The Scream

 The tech behind each one is impressive. 

It's easy enough to throw down a prim and add a famous texture, but just try to find the right pose, or poses, figure out the average avatar height and make poseball scripts that place the new subjects of the picture in just the right spot to line up with the background - a background, remember, that had to be gimped or photoshopped to remove the original 'inhabitants' - then there are the appropriate props, like this one with Star and me being all American Gothic.

Star  Ravenhurst: Don't move, taking a photo... We just turned it all upside down! haha

Thirza Ember: I may just keep the pitchfork for next week's safari

Star  Ravenhurst: UHoh Should we be worried?

Angelic  Kisses: Run ROFF!! ... are we going to a farm?

Star  Ravenhurst: Or Hell?

Angelic  Kisses: oh my!

Star  Ravenhurst: Got me with the pitch fork, too

Frankie Rockett: OK gang please follow me on to the next exhibit! I am making you walk a long way to the next one!! I am passing lots of tempting options on my right here but I do want to show you just 2 more before I leave you to your own devices! 

Frankie Rockett: In a deviation from staying strictly with canvases and prints we decided to recreate a famous scene from an iconic film: Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". Although it works fine as it is, if you have sound - turn it up now! - as it definitely has more to offer in that dimension too!

Forest  Azure: omg the shower scene!

Frankie Rockett: Any naked shower-ready female (oh ok clothed is fine) person wish to demonstrate?

Tosha  Tyran: of course

Xi Shi: eeek

Zadijah Ahmed: get out of there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forest  Azure: you look rather calm Xi

Angelic  Kisses: he's behind you!!!... that is very cool

 Frankie Rockett:  After the stress of Psycho I thought we'd end on pure silliness

Wizardoz  Chrome: Keith Haring <3

Frankie Rockett: Exactly Wizard!

James  Atlloud: I feel like I belong here

Angelic Kisses: me getting up in the morning

Tosha Tyran: you guys do look a little weird I dare say

James Atlloud: brilliant

So how did Frankie end up on LFgrid? Grid owner Walter Balazic explained.

Walter Balazic: Ashton has been friends with Frankie a very long time, and we are all honored that Frankie has decided to host Art Box here on Littlefield Grid and host his future projects as well.  We are big fans of his work and of any Art and Culture in Opensimulator.  We are thrilled to be included in it.  We have a lot of stuff like this on this grid, people just don't know it

Thirza Ember: once you have picked an image you want to use for an art box how long does it take you to come up with the tableau Frankie?

Frankie Rockett: Well back in the day, about 2 or 3 days Thirza, but I think of At Box as 'finished' now and am moving on to a new creation. It's been on hold for a year due to RL but soon I hope to restart. It's called Delta Ceti and it's about searching for the God that lives in a city.

Star Ravenhurst: This has been so much fun Frankie. Thank you for the tour... I am going to explore some more get more pictures!  

Mal in  'Lunch atop a skyscraper'

Frankie Rockett: Hope you come again all!!

James Atlloud: this is brilliant fun Frankie - worthy of being preserved for sure

Frankie Rockett: Aww James it's lovely to hear that!

Angelic Kisses: Frankie this was so much fun, thank you!

Wizardoz Chrome: what a great way to raise awareness of art :) Thank you

Forest changes the water

Tosha Tyran: this is a real playground!

Frankie Rockett: I am so pleased everyone liked it, and those who didn't, didn't say, hahaha

Forest Azure: everybody loves to play right?

Frankie Rockett: Right!!

HG Address:  lfgrid.com:8002:Art Box

hop://lfgrid.com:8002/Art%20Box/128/60/24